Alpaca - 1960

Dallas: H.L. Hunt Press, 1960. First Edition. First Printing. 12mo (14.5cm.); publisher's pictorial card wrappers; [2],183pp.; illus. including photographs and facsimiles. Light shelf wear, spine a shade sunned, cancel "Amendments which have been suggested for the Constitution of Alpaca" stapled to front free endpaper with minor subsequent rust stains, else Very Good or better. Copyright page lists this as a first printing, January, 1960, with a Spanish Edition available in March. The poker player-turned-oil tycoon's right-wing utopian fantasy, in which the ideal society would function on a graduated scale of suffrage, the oldest, richest, and most ambitious citizens getting the most votes. Thus, according to the author, "Self-government will at last be an actuality without oration, declaration, demagoguery, shouts and drum-beating. Instead, there will be the fire of patriotism of a people who are sovereign with the confidence gained through elevating the best-fitted to the highest positions in governing themselves. Idealistic?--no, for the Ideal through simplicity becomes real" (p. 133). Unsurprisingly at the time of publication Hunt was himself one of the richest men in the world.